What a Day Picking Your Assam Now Pays: Rs 280
A Rs 30 rise took the Brahmaputra valley daily wage to Rs 280 from April 1, an interim figure the state says will be revised again within six months and may pass Rs 300; Adivasi worker bodies called it inadequate.
The people who pick your Assam now earn Rs 280 (about US$3) a day in the Brahmaputra valley after a Rs 30 minimum-wage rise took effect April 1. The Barak valley rate rose the same amount, to Rs 258.
The Brahmaputra figure is up from Rs 250 and the Barak figure up from Rs 228. The state's Department of Labour Welfare notified the rise on March 7, on a recommendation the Minimum Wages Advisory Board made on February 26. It covers the large estates and the small gardens in both valleys, and reaches more than seven lakh workers (over 700,000; a lakh is the Indian unit for 100,000), press reports said.
The state called the figure interim. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said wages would be revised again as the central government's new labour codes take effect, and that the stakeholders would "probably have to sit again in the next six months," after which the daily wage was likely to cross Rs 300, according to Business Standard. In the Brahmaputra valley the wage has risen from Rs 197 before 2021, a gain of more than 40% over five years.
Adivasi worker bodies called the rise inadequate. The All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam, which demanded Rs 551 a day, said the promise to align the wage with the new labour codes was "nothing but a misleading and hollow assurance," its president Rejan Horo said. The Adivasi Youth-Students' Association of Assam, which sought at least Rs 500, said the revision was "contrary to the spirit and objective of the law," its president Nipen Munda said. Horo said even the Rs 351 a day the ruling party promised in its 2016 election manifesto, still unmet, does not adequately address the economic hardships tea garden workers face.
What a worker takes home is a separate figure. Pay is tied to a daily plucking target, around 24 kilograms of leaf at the height of the season, and falling short brings deductions, so the notified wage is a floor that take-home pay can drop below. Assam grows more than half of India's tea, and its gardens support some 6.84 lakh (684,000) workers, EastMojo reported. The state's notified unskilled wage outside the gardens is Rs 345 a day; in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, tea plucking pays Rs 475 and Rs 546.
What the wage floor costs a garden's books, set against the price its leaf draws, is a ledger question, and The Teaconomist has worked the numbers.
Sources: Business Standard, "Hike in Assam tea garden workers' daily wage by Rs 30 from Apr 1"; The Sentinel, "Assam Tea Garden Workers to Get Rs 280 Daily Wage in Brahmaputra Valley From April 1"; Outlook Business, "Hike in Assam Tea Garden Workers' Daily Wage by Rs 30 From Apr 1"; The Assam Tribune, "Tea garden bodies slam Assam govt's Rs 30 daily wage hike as inadequate"; EastMojo, "Assam's tea industry at a crossroads: why wages deserve centre stage"; Asom Barta, "Assam Tea Garden Workers Get Rs 30 Daily Wage Hike". Wage figures are the state's notification of March 7, 2026.
Correction, July 17, 2026: An earlier version converted Rs 280 to about US$3.25. At exchange rates prevailing around the April 1 wage change, Rs 280 converts to about US$3.